Josef Afritsch

Josef Afritsch (13 March 1901-25 August 1964) was Federal Minister of the Interior of Austria from 16 July 1959 to 27 March 1963 and an SPO MP from 1962 to 1964.

Biography
Josef Afritsch was born in Graz, Styria, Austria-Hungary in 1901, and he worked as a horticulturalist before joining the SPO. He used trade union funds to secure the escape of Jewish SPO member Bruno Kreisky after the Anschluss, saving him from near-certain death during the Holocaust. From 1945 to 1959, he served on the Vienna City Council, and he served as Federal Minister of the Interior from 1959 to 1963 and as an MP from 1962 to 1964. In 1964, just a few weeks before his sudden death, a rose was named in his honor.